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Mind Over Matter: Artificial Intelligence Can Slash The Time Needed To Develop New Materials

The convergence of mind and matter, of digital and physical technologies lies at the heart of the fourth industrial revolution. The marriage of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and materials science represents one of the clearest examples.

Pure digital innovation has attracted the greatest attention—and a large share of financial investment—over the last several years. But we live in a material world, where the quality of our lives depends on improvements in physical products and services: food and shelter, health care, transportation, energy.

True, we spend a lot more time in our online virtual worlds; but this is mirrored by a growing number of Amazon packages at our doorsteps.

Manufacturing today benefits from three waves of innovation: new production techniques (like 3-D printing), new design methods (like generative design, also driven by A.I.) and new materials. These three waves of innovation are interdependent and mutually reinforcing: 3-D printing allows us to manufacture components with different geometries, yielding greater resistance, lighter weight and better performance; finding new geometries requires a different approach to design, where A.I. helps us break free from the mental constraints acquired through decades of traditional manufacturing methods; new materials can in turn broaden the range of possible design solutions.

Each of these trends is powerful in itself, but bringing them together compounds their transformational potential, for example by co-optimizing new geometries and new materials.

Companies operating in the materials space will have to adapt. While past phases of economic development have been characterized by one or a few dominant materials, the future will shift towards greater specialization, towards a wider range of new materials individually suited to specific applications.

For companies in the materials space, success will hinge on the ability to quickly identify, design and develop the new materials that can best meet the shifting priorities of their customers. Companies will need a different set of skills, bringing together material scientists and data scientists and, increasingly, experts conversant in both data and materials science.

The coming together of A.I. and materials science can help boost manufacturing productivity; and innovations in tangible reality might prove as exciting as those of virtual and augmented reality.

Marco Annunziata is Co-Founder of Annunziata + Desai Advisors and former Chief Economist and Head of Business Innovation Strategy at GE. Follow him on Twitter

I have a passion for understanding how technological innovation impacts industry, business strategies, competition, economic growth, jobs and incomes. I accumulated…Read More

I have a passion for understanding how technological innovation impacts industry, business strategies, competition, economic growth, jobs and incomes. I accumulated plenty of hands-on experience on these issues during my seven years as General Electric’s Chief Economist and Head of Business Innovation Strategy, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Working in Silicon Valley and with extensive experience in a large corporation, I strive to connect the dots between the world of tech and start-ups, traditional industry, and the global economy. In my previous incarnations I have worked in investment banking and at the International Monetary Fund, so I also think and write a lot about economic policy issues and financial markets developments. I have a PhD in economics (Princeton) and I always think in terms of incentives. I co-founded Annunziata + Desai Advisors, and you can contact me on our website www.annunziatadesai.com.Read Less